The Arizona sentinel., 1887-11-12
THE FOLLY OF YOUTH.
Young Men of the Present Compared
with Those of a Past Generation.

Young Men of the Present Compared
with Those of a Past Generation.
A Boston paper told the other day
Of man who, meeting an old friend
and inquiring casually about the men,
bers of his family. mentioned his son.
MY son." replied the other. with a
/ frankness which seemed to indicate his
sense of the uselessness of Disgusting
The sad fact, "has gone to the deuce. y"
The bare and naked confess;o was
more expressive of the heartache
of the parent facing the decline of life
in the certainty that the bearer of his
name was leading worthless career.
than any terms of grief could be. 1t
was unadorned misery itself.
Yet what common situation this is
coming to be! The young men are
schooled, educated, and many of them
college educated. More money, en-
1eavor and affection are lavished on
one, upon an average, than were spent
upon three boys in the last generation.
They have gymnasiums provided TO
cultivate their physical constitutions,
and from two weeks to two months in
the year to go canoeing, boating,
camping, yachting, rocking rusticat-
ing 'roughing" it in too many senses.
Yet all these things are too often
abused by being 50 employed us to
make the lusts of the body sustain
greater indulgences. As one con-
fessed after two weeks in the mount
aims from which he returned rather
pale: You see the fresh air in the
mountains and good appetite built
me up so that l was able 10 smoke
double the number of cigarettes in
day."
This is the kind # man who is
thrown out of West Point by his hol-
low chest and spindling build. The
class is represented by the young fell
low who had been educated at Column
bia and was found dead in his bed by
his parents returning from Europe.
The cigarette had stopped the heart.
and all the promise of manhood on its
threshold was turned TO ashes. An
other Columbia man-Willard Snow
den. son of Rev. Bayard Snowden OF
Fort Hamilton-hasd died from internal
injuries received last year in q cane
rush.
But this was 4 mere loss. In how
many other cases is there not mere
loss. but wrong. often degradation
and guilt, and perhaps crime. as in
the case of young McNeily. We
believe the professional base ball fever
is a miserable debasement of youth.
The city of Boston has gone crazy over
the playing of II lot of hired mer-
cenarics thirty or forty years of age,
nine of whom were lately fined twen
ty-fve dollars each by their employers
for an incapacitating u.s. of spirits.
Very respectable people have crowded
the spectators seats. 1t is of no par
ticular value to the boys. In fact, the
boys can not get near the play -ground,
and the games are largely attended by
the worst elements in the city. rs we'll
as by some of the best. The whole
thing teaches the youth that great
and indolent profession has been built
up on what should be manly sport.
We are not claiming that the young
men are worse than in former genera
lions, for the data for comparison are
of so little value that all such contrasts
are utterly worthless. But we do say
that never was so much done for youth
and the resulting products are still in
too many cases great disappointments
to those on whom has fallen the burden
of raising the coming generation.
Time will pass on and some of those
who now pile up the misery of paternal
hearts may yet know chow sharper
than serpent's tooth it is 10 have a
child. "-Sprinlfsld (Mass. J